Fatima brought to Scotland’s schools

Thirty-five thousand Rosary beads are being sent to Catholic schoolchildren across Scotland to mark the centenary of the apparitions at Fatima.

A special statue of Our Lady of Fatima will also tour Scotland to help Catholics take advantage of the plenary indulgence the Pope has offered for the centenary.

Pope Francis will visit Fatima on May 12 and 13 and there will be extensive celebrations throughout Scotland with Mass at St Andrew’s Cathedral, an all night vigil at the Shrine to Our Lady of Fatima at Howood, and a rosary procession at Carfin Grotto.

The Apostolate of Fatima Scotland is sending the Rosary Beads to 35,000 students at Catholic schools to increase devotions to Fatima.

A special statue of Our Lady of Scotland is to tour the country and will visit each of the eight cathedrals between May and October. There are also plans to take the statue to the Hebrides.

The statue’s tour will allow Catholics who cannot travel to Fatima to pray for an indulgence. According to the rector of the shrine at Fatima, an indulgence can be obtained by the ‘pious faithful who visit with devotion a statue of Our Lady of Fatima solemnly exposed for public veneration in any church, oratory or proper place during the days of the anniversary of the apparitions, the 13th of each month from May to October (2017), and there devoutly participate in some celebration or prayer in honour of the Virgin Mary.”

The rector of the Fatima Shrine said that the visit to the statue of the Virgin, ‘does not necessarily have to be only at Fatima or exclusively in Portugal,’ but can be done anywhere in the world.

Those seeking an indulgence must pray an Our Father, recite the Creed and invoke Our Lady of Fatima.

In addition, a third way to obtain a plenary indulgence applies to people who, because of age, illness or other serious cause, are unable to get around.

These individuals can pray in front of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and must spiritually unite themselves to the jubilee celebrations on the days of the apparitions, the 13th of each month, between May and October 2017.

They also must ‘offer to merciful God with confidence, through Mary, their prayers and sufferings or the sacrifices they make in their own lives.’